Michael Kilpatrick- Farmer, Leader, Speaker, Change agent

Menu

Tag Archives: Storage

As the harvest season progresses and the air cools, rodents start thinking about stocking up for winter and finding a home. Across the US, rodents cause up to 1 billion dollars in damage a year. Don’t let that be you.

Lets start by getting our crops in without damage in the field.

Our number one recommendation is to clean up your fields. When we see issues it is usually because of piles of weeds, debris, and trash on field edges. This extends into the field- keep your crop clean. If rodents have no place to hide, the local raptor population will have a field day. Best of all, they don’t require health insurance or a 401k!

Plastic and ground cloth, while they keep weeds down and warm the soil slightly, do provide a home for these furry creatures. Think long and hard if it is worth the damage.

Agrid3 is a great Certified Organic bait. We put it in little bait boxes in the field for crops that tend to get hit (sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, winter squash) usually around August 1st. We will flag each location for as the crops tend to grow, the boxes tend to disappear until you hit them with a machine! We used to just use small wooden boxes but Eliot showed us how he has gone to using small tackle boxes with holes cut in each end. 8-12 boxes per acre work great.

Eliot Coleman’s tackle box turned into a rodent bait station.

Mousetraps in the above boxes or just a piece of 4” drainage pipe work great as well in the field but have to constantly be checked.

Again, clean around your building and provide no habitat for the little critters. Old plywood, piles of pallets, junk equipment, all provide great refuge from predators and warm winter homes.

Remove other sources of food. Keep compost piles, grain storage or straw storage away from where you are trying to store food. A scorched earth policy.

Well-lit, cement floored, clean storage areas are always a good idea. Gives you instant knowledge if you have been breached! Dirt-floored, cluttered, dimly lit storage areas are just asking for trouble.

We do not recommend bait boxes in storage. Too easy for a animal to eat the bait and then die somewhere in your carrots, causing all sorts of food safety issues. I would take the tackle box and put snap traps in them, making sure to check them every other day.

And, get a good dog. Most cats try to have too much fun with their food to be of much use.

About

I’m a farmer, presenter, and blogger who lives to help farmers apply business principles and best practices to farming and agriculture. I have managed a large certified organic farm, presented at farm and agricultural conferences, and consulted with farmers around the country.